Artist fined over inflatable deaths

Artist Maurice Agis, 77, stood trial for the manslaughter by gross negligence of Elizabeth Collings and Claire Furmedge, who fell out of his Dreamspace sculpture.

After a jury at Newcastle Crown Court was unable to reach verdicts on the manslaughter charges, he was told he would not face a retrial.

But he was convicted last month of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act by failing to ensure the safety of members of the public.

Also facing sentence was Chester-le-Street Council, which carried out a safety check prior to the exhibit opening to the public in the town's Riverside Park in July 2006. The council admitted breaching the Act and was fined £20,000.

Liverpool-based events management company Brouhaha International Limited, run by Agis's son Giles and involved in staging the Dreamspace visit, also pleaded guilty. It was fined £4,000.

Mrs Furmedge, 38, from Chester-le-Street, and Mrs Collings, 68, from Seaham, who was known to friends as Anne, died when they fell from the walk-around artwork as it went tumbling across the park.

The ropes tethering the 50-yard by 50-yard inflatable sculpture were no longer able to hold it and it broke free, flipping over and crashing into a CCTV pole, where it deflated.

Another 27 visitors were injured, among them Rosie Wright, then aged three, whose life was saved by a passing anaesthetist and the prompt actions of an air ambulance crew who flew her to hospital.

Agis, from Kirton Gardens, Bethnal Green, east London, wrote to the families after the tragedy, vowing never to show Dreamspace again.